India, Israel amongst shameful countries for HR violations: UN

Shares

The United Nations has listed India and Israel, two best allies, among 38 shameful countries, which it said had carried out reprisals or intimidation against people cooperating with it on human rights, through killings, torture and arbitrary arrests.

“There is a worrying bias in the use of national security arguments and counter-terrorism strategies by states as an argument for barring access by communities and civil society organizations to the United Nations,” the report said.

Women supporting the U.N. had reported intimidations including rape and being subject to online slander attacks, and U.N. staff often encountered people who were too afraid to speak to them, even at U.N. headquarters in New York and Geneva.

U.N. Assistant Secretary-General for Human Rights Andrew Gilmour , who will present the report to the Human Rights Council next week, said in a statement that the cases in the report were the tip of the iceberg. “We are also frequently witnessing legal, political and administrative barriers used to threaten and mute the civil society,” he said.